Increasing lead conversion rate is the #1 problem most marketers face.

The top reason? The lack of a strong lead nurturing system.

Most of your leads can fall through the cracks without a lead-nurturing system.

What if there was an automated system to nurture your leads? 

An automated system that ascends customers through the buyer’s journey?

Well, there is – WhatsApp chatbots.

In this blog, we’ll share our step-by-step guide to nurturing leads using WhatsApp chatbots.

By the end, you’ll know exactly how to use a WhatsApp chatbot for lead generation.

Let’s begin.

What are WhatsApp chatbots? 

First things first.

Let’s understand what WhatsApp chatbots are and how they work.

WhatsApp Chatbots, as the name implies, are bots that chat on WhatsApp with your customers.

Why use chatbots for lead nurturing instead of humans?

Simple, chatbots are cheaper, more scalable, and can stay active 24/7.

Also, humans cannot match the response speed chatbots offers.

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Businesses today use chatbots for almost all their customer operations. This includes providing immediate customer support, customised suggestions, and even help with sales.

With WhatsApp chatbot, your customers can seamlessly interact with your business.

And they’re able to:

• Learn about your services
• Get answers to their questions
• Place orders at any time of the day.

But in this blog, we will only focus on one core benefit- using chatbots for lead nurturing.

Let’s get to it.

How chatbots boost lead nurturing and conversion rates

No matter what business you’re in, there’s something you need to understand.

Lead nurturing is key to conversions.

Most people who have bought from your business weren’t ready to purchase right away.

Instead, they went through what we call the “customer journey” in marketing terms.

In simple terms, a customer travels through 3 main stages in their customer journey.

These three stages of the customer journey are:

• Awareness stage
• Consideration stage
• Decision stage

You must keep nurturing your leads in each stage of this customer journey.

Because it’s only after successful nurturing in each stage that a customer is most likely to buy.

And, if you don’t, you can lose your lead at any stage of their customer journey.

But here’s the best part.

You don’t have to engage with your customers personally in any of these stages to nurture them.

You can automate this entire lead nurturing process with WhatsApp chatbots.

Here’s how WhatsApp chatbots help nurture leads at each stage.

Awareness stage

This is the initial stage of a customer journey.

At this stage, customers are not ready to make a purchase, they are just looking to collect information about your business.

Here’s how you can use chatbots to nurture your leads in the awareness stage:

• Answer FAQs: To instantly reply to customers with questions about your business.
• Help discover the right products: To make recommendations that fit what someone likes.
• Provide product demos: To show people what your product is and how it works.

Simply put, you just need to answer their surface-level questions at this stage.

You need to get them interested in your product.

Once you get them interested, you can consider them to have moved on to the consideration stage.

Let’s look at how to use chatbots for lead nurturing in the consideration stage.

Consideration stage

In the awareness stage, the customers absorb as much information as possible.

This enhances their interest and slips them up to the consideration stage.

In this stage, prospects may have questions about your business. Questions on your pricing, features, and benefits of using your product.

They might want to know how your product or service compares to others on the market.

Here’s how WhatsApp chatbots can help nurture leads at the consideration stage:

• Provide detailed information: To help potential customers understand the value of your offerings.  Chatbots can answer questions about your product capabilities. They can compare them to other options on the market.
• Assist with decision-making: To help prospects evaluate different options.  Chatbots can help customers with price and feature comparisons. This will allow them to make informed decisions.
• Address objections: To address potential customers’ objections or concerns. The most common objection to address are pricing, quality, and support.

Using chatbots for lead nurturing in the consideration stage involves explaining your product’s capabilities and its value over other options.

From there, the chatbots drive the prospects to the decision stage.

Decision stage

At this stage, customers are ready to make a purchase decision. 

They may be evaluating the benefits of multiple options. They are looking for the assurance that they are making the right choice.

Here’s how to use your WhatsApp chatbots for lead nurturing in the decision stage:

• Showing product demos/unboxing videos: To show your prospects exactly what they’ll get. This will reduce friction, and they’ll trigger the purchase. 
• Providing real-time inventory status: To show customers the number of items left in stock. This helps them plan their purchases carefully. 
• Redirecting to checkout pages: To send customers directly to your website’s checkout page. This allows them to purchase instantly. 

Until now, you’ve learned how chatbots can help nurture leads at each stage of the customer journey.

Now, you are ready for an exact step-by-step guide on how to nurture leads with WhatsApp chatbots.

Let’s get to it.

Step-by-step guide on how to nurture leads with WhatsApp chatbots 

Nurturing leads with a WhatsApp chatbot is not that hard.

You can follow this step-by-step guide to simplify the entire process.

Step #1: Determine your target audience’s pains/problems

Every new lead has a specific problem, pain, or desire.

You need to programme your chatbot accordingly. It should address your customers’ problems, pains, and desires.

Do your research and write down each problem, pain, and desire of your target audience.

Once you are done, the next step is to craft clear questions (FAQs) centred around your research.

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Step #2: Identify keywords and questions based on your research

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Figure out what questions they are asking themselves.

Or, you can go online and check the frequently used words and questions customers ask.

Organise the keywords and questions in order of importance. 

Then, rewrite them for clarity & conciseness.

Then, move on to the next step.

Step#3: Craft responses for your keywords and questions

Once you have your keywords and questions, the next natural step is to craft the response.

You can use simple text to set it as a response. 

Or you can add links to helpful blogs, instructional videos, or review pages.

You can also add a clickable link for customers to chat with a customer service agent.

Once you have keywords, questions, and responses, you’re ready to move to step 4.

Step#4: Design your customer conversation flows

A conversation flow is like a roadmap.  It shows how your chatbot talks to people at different customer journey stages.

To make a good conversation flow, you need to think about what people might want to know at each stage.

For example, consider the stage when people are just starting to learn about your store.  They might have questions about what you sell and how it works at this stage.

But it’s completely different when they are ready to purchase. Now, they might want to know about your special deals or discounts.

Once you know what people want to know, you can make answers that help them through the sales journey.

Give them information about your store and what you sell. Suggest products they might like, or offer discounts to help them decide.

Once your conversation flows are designed and finalised, all that’s left to do is to execute them.

This brings us to step#5.

Step#5: Execute conversation flows in your Whatsapp chatbot

Now that you’ve got everything ready for your chatbot to nurture leads, all that’s left to do is execute.

Connect your WhatsApp Chatbot with your WhatsApp Business account.  Then, set up your conversation flows.

Once done, drive traffic to your WhatsApp chatbots. You can drive traffic to your social media or website.

Then, let the chatbot run its magic. Let the data accumulate for a few weeks and move on to step 6. 

Step#6: Analyse and optimise your WhatsApp chatbot

Designing conversation flow is the key part of implementing WhatsApp chatbots for lead nurturing.

But what’s more important is to optimise your conversation flows. 

You need to analyse your engagement data.

Find out what type of questions and keywords your audience most frequently inputs. Then redesign your conversation flows.

The new flows should automatically suggest the top inquiry options to new customers.

This will give your customers exactly what they want without asking for it.

And that’s it. 6 steps you can follow to nurture leads with WhatsApp chatbots.

And if you really want to get the best out of Whatsapp chatbots, have a look at the following best practices.

Best practices for WhatsApp chatbots to nurture leads 

A good practice is customising conversation flows for your WhatsApp chatbots based on your industry.

Some practices are applicable, no matter your business or industry.

Follow these WhatsApp Chatbot best practices to get a leg up in your lead nurturing.

• Keep it conversational: Keep the language and tone of your bots conversational. Avoid using big words or smart language.
• Provide value: Make sure people get something good from talking to your chatbot. They should learn something useful, get good ideas, or learn about special deals.
• Use visuals: Add pictures and videos in your chatbot flows to make things more interesting. This can help explain things better and show off what you’re selling.
• Make it user-friendly: Make sure people can figure out how to use your chatbot without trouble. Don’t make them do too much work or fill out long forms
• Continuously improve: Track how well your chatbot performs lead nurturing. Look for ways to improve it and add new things that people will like.

Make your lead nurturing a breeze with SMSCountry

You just learnt everything there is to know about WhatsApp chatbots for lead nurturing.

All you need now is a reliable WhatsApp Chatbot provider.

Look no further than Telebu Social Connect. 

So if you want a scalable, cost-effective WhatsApp chatbot that stays online 24/7, sign up free for Telebu Social Connect today.

Or, schedule a free demo, and our expert will show you how easy it is to use WhatsApp chatbots.